It’s a Saturday. The reactor that powers BoL has been idling contemplatively. We’ve attempted engaging backup systems, but as is the want of fail safes, they’ve failed. I’d like to insert a ‘Nuclear Volcano’ reference here but, well, we don’t actually have one. Yet. Most of the money went to the orbital ‘Slightly Uncomfortable’ Ray. And possibly Greek debt. That vague paranoia you feel? Oh yes, that’s us. At least a few of our assets are operational. Rest assured though, as soon as we can procure the services of some well-qualified DARPA rejects, full power will return.

Image from APEDOGS via FFFFound!

Tags: I should probably go to bed, Methodology, Pictoriphilia by Etruscan
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I know I’ve been conspicuously absent these past weeks.  I could describe an elaborate sob story about how busy I’ve been, but the truth is these guys have me locked up in their basement.  Enjoy.

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Audiophilia, I should probably go to bed, Videophilia by Gestalt
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It appears that some scientists are teaching robots how to learn, cooperate, evolve, and hunt.  That’s right, Hunt.  It looks like we might not be at the top of the food chain for long.

<Top secret underground science laboratory hidden inside of an inactive volcano.>

Working in a top secret lab all day making top secret things that you can’t tell anyone about has got to be one of the loneliest existences in the world.  I know it may sound glamorous, but it’s not.  That is why these scientists made little modular robots as desk pets.  Aw…cute, it dances!  Then they would swap pieces and make new robots that did more things, like fetch.  These pets adapted and started thinking for themselves and made better generations of robots.  At first it was cute… new robot babies!  So, they started encouraging the behavior thus making them even smarter, more adaptable, and more plentiful.

This of course started cluttering up the work spaces,a la tribblesque. This got annoying real quick.  The balance of order was upset, the cute little robots had no predators.  So, to brake the monotony of working in a top secret lab and inventing stuff all day these scientist made a game to reduce the robot population.

Lets play Robot Survivor!  Two teams of robots stranded in one break room competing to see who can..uhm…survive.  You’ve seen the show.  They have to learn to work as a team to gain survival points.  See them work as a team to move bigger disks to gain more points. Wow!

This of course allowed for a couple weeks of gambling, but then the bosses caught word of this and locked up the break room and ordered everyone to get back to work.  Doomsday wasn’t going to bring itself!  Neglected, the robots’ resources were dwindling, out of desperation the waring tribes started learning to hunt other robots.  This started culling them out pretty quick, but then they started developing defensive maneuvers. By spinning around they could make sure no one was sneaking up on them. Who would have thought!

I know this sounds pretty elementary, but they taught themselves to do that. Darwinian robot evolution at it’s finest.  Eventually those robots will figure how to get out of that break room, and get revenge on their negligent makers.

The moral of the story: Don’t procrastinate on constructing the end of the world, because you might just end up designing your doom.

Yes, 2012 is right on schedule.

Thanks, cnet, PLoS

Tags: I should probably go to bed, Technophilia by Gestalt
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Read this travelogue from Guardian UK writer Douglas Rogers.

His experience is a perfect photograph of every experience I’ve had on an Amtrak train east of the Mississippi for the last two decades.  Right down to the bomb scare (mine was simply a large battery underneath the train catching fire at 2 a.m. in the middle of The Badlands, but hey, it was the ’90’s and Fear wasn’t in vogue yet).

Look how HARD he has to rationalize his account.  His train is stopped by a bomb scare – but it’s OK! It’s near a really quaint little town with a used bookshop! Really!  It’s alllll part of the allure of train travel in America!

Also, keep track of the number of times Doug mentions booze.  In fact, every time Doug mentions booze, take a drink because that’s how you keep face on an Amtrak trip: ANESTHETIZE!

Best part: Doug has to cut it short to FLY home because his wife goes into labor.

Oh, Doug.

Poor Doug rides trains like I ride trains: willing to take any level of bullshit because we are so enamored of old black and white pictures like this:

And it is not like that. At all.  If you think you are treated like Second Class Citizens on this nation’s domestic air flights, you have never enjoyed being a third class citizen on Amtrak. I mean,  they don’t even capitalize it, look!

Sad. Sad. Sad.

I WANT to love you, Amtrak.

[takes swig of teeny-tiny bottle of Amtrak merlot]

Why you got to make me hurt you like this?

[collapses into corner and begins sobbing]

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, I should probably go to bed, Pictoriphilia by Cash Money
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<begin>

Tonight’s feature comes to us via a tip picked up from Japundit from Peter Payne’s J-List. In his post, Payne had ruminated that the emotional content and engagement in anime were the driving force behind its growing appeal and worldwide reach. I’d like to interject just a few thoughts of my own. While I think these sorts of universal storylines, and emotionally familiar and personally reminiscent characters are a fantastic force in storytelling (think for instance of Campbell’s hero cycle as displayed in Star Wars, which is a further execution of Beowulf). I think that misses a little bit of exactly why this is compelling to so many individuals. Much of the beauty I find in anime, and indeed, a work like Star Wars, is that it has the power to express tremendously complex philosophical and emotional concepts in what would be considered on the surface as a very basic form. It’s not unlike reading a layman’s guide to quantum mechanics. You have the ability to take much more away from it than the narrative or presentation actually impose upon you.

That said, there’s also the issue of stylization, which plays largely into how these narratives are perceived. If you’ve ever looked into anime, you’ve likely heard plenty of jokes about Moe, or alternatively, overt male androgyny (Disclosure: I’m still working on male anime hair). I theorize that there’s actually an extremely clever design behind the stylistic forms we associate with anime, and it’s the same one that keeps kittens and babies safe from predators.

They’re supposed to be exaggerated. You identify more with them that way.

Encountering a stylized human form (large eyes, exaggerated features, childlike behavior). Has always engaged an emotional parental response; it’s a biological imperative. This is what our young are born looking like. No wonder they evoke an emotional response. And look at what gates that opens for storytelling:

<
[Read more →]

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, I should probably go to bed, Videophilia by Etruscan
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I am not even going to pretend that I understand which way is front or back.

/Sigh…   Where is the only place that you can go at 2am to see someone that might just be in worse shape than you but not because they are drunk?  Where else can you go at 2am and play with the bouncy balls, turn on all the nosey toys, sit down in the middle of the toy aisle to play battleships with your friends?  Walmart, of course!

I spent many countless moments of my young adult life wondering the aisles in the wee hours of the AM reeking havoic with my friends.  I spent many minutes people watching because in Walmart that is what you go there to do, to people watch.  I saw some crazy and very unfortunate things at Walmart.  It is the one place on earth that diversity is apparent.  Hookers to suits, dementia to child tantrums,  fashion statments to fashion mishaps, make-up, electronics, groceries, guns, video games, toys, As Seen On TV and all at a low price in a big blue and white painted warehouse where America drones and walks the earth one ground shaking moment at a time.

 
There is a website now dedicated to the “People of Walmart“.  I never thought I would see that day but we all knew it would happen because if you have ever been to a Walmart you know, you just know.

Tags: Economics, I should probably go to bed, Pictoriphilia, Sarcophophilia by Nekogirl
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So, a couple weeks back several members of the BOL staff had given theirtwo cents about the gay marriage being overturned. Since I have been conspicuously absent I thought I would add my much belated opinion. Firstly, that sucks. I have a lot of friends that would like to get married but can’t. Secondly, legalizing gay marriage is good for the economy, so when you’re poor and bitching about how the governor doesn’t do enough, blame yourself for voting poorly. And lastly, for my gay friends out there who are feeling down and defeated and think it will never come true, don’t worry. In the future there will be open and legal gayness everywhere. If you don’t believe me watch Star Trek.

I know, I know what you’re thinking. “But that’s the sixties, everything back then was full of sexual tension. Look at Spartacus” This may be so, but have you taken a closer look at Star Trek: Next Generation? Keep in mind this is the future. Things are more open then, or I mean will be.

See! In the future gays will have equal rights and everything will be ok. So, stop trying to outlaw gay marriages.

Tags: Audiophilia, I should probably go to bed, Politics, Videophilia by Gestalt
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